a collection of (awesome) automotive ideas

If you had the resources to build yourself a performance street car, what would it be?

I don’t know about you guys (maybe you could comment with your ideas), but my dream custom-nuilt car would look something like this:

The base of the car would be the awesome (and very capable) GTM Mk2 Supercar from Factory Five Racing. It’s a custom built tubular frame that’s very lightweight and it rivals the stiffness of many purebred super sportscars (the likes of the Ferrari Enzo, for instance), and has been clocked at very high lateral G values – a perfect starting point for our build. Furthermore, the kit comes with everything you need to get your project running. Check out a picture of the factory-built Mk 2 GTM and follow the link for a detailed description and more pictures. Great work, Factory Five!

In keeping with the lightweight of the chassis, I chose an engine which weighs very little, yet is extremely potent: the 500 horsepower, 2.4 litre supercharged RST V8 race engine built by Mountune. There’s not much I can say about this engine. Suffice to say it has won accolades the world over. Follow the link to Mountune’s website to learn more about it:

EXE-TC engineer racing suspension systems from the ground up for each individual project they tackle. They take into account the weaknesses in a particular chassis setup and address them when designing a system. Hell, they make Sebastian Loeb’s rally car suspension! How’s that for an endorsement! Check out their website:

A performance car such as the one we’re (fictitiously) building here has to produce a soundtrack worthy of its looks and performance. Hence, I would go with a custom-engineered titanium exhaust by Capristo. Visit their website for examples of their work:

The transmission for our project needs to be lightweight and precise, and therefore the 6MTL650 transaxle from Getrag is the component of choice. In keeping with the project’s lightweight theme, this tranny has a dry weight of only 71 kilograms is actuated via cable and withstands a torque figure of 650 Nm. Read more specs on their website:

Sustained braking power with reduced unsprung weight is what a car such as the one we’re building needs. Therefore, I have resorted once again to MOV’IT and their excellent 6-pot ceramic brake system. Check out their website (and read the excellent evo article featured on the page):

I hope this post has stimulated your inspiration! I find that building fictitious cars (or, God knows, maybe I will one day be able to own one of these babies) like this helps my imagination, in terms of looking for appropriate components. Feel free to dream on! Cheers!